1. Field
The disclosure relates generally to a computer implemented method, a data processing system, and a computer program product for information service technology delivery. More specifically, the disclosure relates generally to a computer implemented method, a data processing system, and a computer program product for providing service technology delivery by considering current service level agreement attainment levels when assigning and prioritizing service requests
2. Description of the Related Art
Information Technology (IT) service delivery is characterized by strict service level agreements (service level agreements), an increasingly competitive environment, and ever narrowing profit margins. Consequently, service providers are continually searching for methods to improve quality of delivery while reducing cost of operations. These conflicting objectives lead providers to identify innovative methods for managing their business. Improved management of service attainment levels is one of the critical areas where providers seek improved performance, since missed service level targets result in both decreased customer satisfaction and significant monetary penalties.
A service request is a request that has associated service level targets as documented in the Service Level Agreements. Similarly, service operation management is the management of daily service operation.
In a service delivery environment, each arriving service requests has an associated contractual service level agreements (service level agreements) that specifies the “quality of service” required for the incoming requests. Typically, service level agreements are structured such that service level agreement misses and penalties are not measured on a request-by-request basis, rather, against the performance of a group of arriving requests over a contractually specified time period. This leads to two distinctive management functions, namely, service operation management for daily request handling and service level management for periodic service level agreement performance calculation and reporting (typically monthly).
However, separation of these two management functions results in reduced coordination across these two systems that impact one another's performance. In service operation management, incoming requests are prioritized and dispatched to service agents based upon the severity or target time of each request, irrespective of the attainment level achieved by the associated service request class in the current evaluation period. In service level management, an service level agreement analyst team monitors and reports on service level agreement attainment levels at the end of each evaluation period which, in the case of service level agreement target miss, is too late to implement corrective actions.